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Re: about The West Wing

SAM
‘Cause Alger Hiss just walked in with my secret pumpkin.
SAM
There’s a woman over there. I think she’s looking at me.

She is making a reference to William Manchester's book called "The Glory and the Dream". She calls the woman Alger Hiss who is one of the characters in that book. Hiss' secret documents and a microfilm were kept for many years in a hollowed out pumpkin. Ten years later the truth was revealed and those papers were used against Hiss in a purjury trial against him.

Cause Alger Hiss just walked in with my secret pumpkin.

I think Samantha thinks the woman that just walked in (she calls her Alger Hiss)has some incriminating evidence against her in, what she widely refers to...a pumpkin.

Re: about The West Wing

And the Alger Hiss affair actually is a historical case, spanning many decades... probably a large factor in eventually getting Nixon elected president, long after the trial ended.

If I remember this episode correctly, Sam is just joking with the reporter, making a very obscure political reference... not one in ten thousand Americans would remember Hiss's pumpkin.

Alger Hiss was an American communist, and was possibly a spy for Russia. A fellow communist had some evidence about Hiss, and, for one night, hid it in a pumpkin. All pretty stupid, actually.

So, Alger Hiss actually never had a pumpkin, but the Hiss case DID involve a pumpkin, hence, Alger Hiss walking in with a pumpkin.

What that line really was, I believe, was the show's attempt to inform everyone watching that they intended The West Wing to be a very, very, very intellectually challenging and stimulating show. The TV equivalent of the NYT Crossword Puzzle. And, IMHO, it was.

I realize that all this English is a bit advanced, and I should tone it down a bit, English Learner, but I want to applaud you for working your way through West Wing scripts. If you can master, or even half-master, either the written or spoken English in those episodes then you will have truly mastered English--it doesn't get any harder than those scripts.

Re: about The West Wing

Two minor corrections.. it's Sam Seaborn, played by Rob Lowe, right?

I have no clue. Never watched West Wing...not my bag.

[I]And the Alger Hiss affair actually is a historical case, spanning many decades...
Right, and it's all well documented in Manchester's book since that book is an American account of all major historical events. The script makes a direct reference to that particular affair.

Re: about The West Wing

Well, it is not a funny ha-ha joke, more like, Sam saying something... cute? Silly? so that he could impress the reporter.

Imagine:
You are in a bar talking to your brother. A pretty female classmate of yours walks by and says Hello to you as she walks by.
Your brother says, "Was that a friend of yours?"
You say, "No, it was Marilyn Monroe the famous movie actress, she wants me to buy her a drink."

Well, of course it was not Marily Monroe, but you are trying to be funny and, maybe, 'show off' your intelligence or your wit a little bit.

It is not a joke that some one would laugh at, but later, your brother would think, hmmmmm.... my brother, he is so fast and intelligent.

A lot of that show has lines just like that one... the actors say very, very intelligent things just to impress other people with how smart and fast they are.